Death by instalments? Mick McCarthy was having none of it. His pallid Irish boys were restricted to a one-goal-apiece draw in Lansdowne Road last night by a well-organised Belgian side. It looked as if the Irish World Cup hopes had just been taken off life support. But Mick McCarthy came out breathing fire and positivity.
"It's half time," he said afterwards of the two-legged play-off tie. "And there won't be any negativity. People will try to drive a wedge in but we will be going to Brussels to attack. We have a good away record but tonight it would have been an injustice to the Belgians if we had won. But who says we can't win in Belgium?"
Much of what we saw last night suggested just that. The Belgians played with a sophisticated fluency. The Irish played beneath themselves, looking as exciting as a meat-and-potatoes outfit.
"I think we were the better team," said Belgian manager Georges Leekens. "I return to Brussels a happy man." It began in happier fashion than it finished. On a night pregnant with promise the Irish were the first to score.
Denis Irwin cast his beady eye on the geometrical possibilities offered by a free kick outside the Belgian penalty area. He then abandoned geometry in favour of sorcery and bent the ball around a bemused line of Belgians and into the back of the net. Six minutes gone and a goal ahead. But in half-an-hour Luc Nilis silenced the old ground as decisively as a conductor wielding a baton.
A muddle of mistakes in the Irish defence culminated in Nilis wickedly spinning a shot into the far corner of the Irish net. At a goal each, the character of the tie had swung against the Irish. Indeed, with away goals counting for double in a draw, the Belgians had merely to sit tight for another 150 minutes of football to ensure their place in France next summer.
To compound the depression, Ireland looked feeble. McCarthy removed his protege Mark Kennedy and installed the more experience Jeff Kenna.
The second half brought little encouragement.
Ireland prodded and plodded. The Belgians absorbed it all with quiet patience.
"You can write us off if you like," said McCarthy defiantly. "But I wouldn't. It's only half time." Trailing in the polls but more like Mary Banotti than Adi Roche.
The second leg takes place in Brussels on November 15th. The Irish can play better and probably will but history tells us that we get little out of Brussels apart from grants.